Janet’s Book Nook

I have to tell you about this service I heard about. It is called ChaCha and it is basically an information line for people with cell phones. You can either voice call or text message to ChaCha with questions you have and they will reply back with a text message with your answer. I love it. If you are on the road and need directions from one spot to another you can call and leave a voice message for ChaCha at 1-800-2chacha and they will respond with the directions you need. If you are going to text message you can use 242242. I tend to like the voice message because some people don’t have text plans and because it is often easier to phrase a question when speaking than when typing. This service is available 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, even on holidays. I love it because they will find a way to answer any question you have that is not illegal or blatantly pornographic. The answers are researched by live "guides" so that you will have the most accurate answer available. This is becoming the most popular form of information available. It is a free service (your phone service may charge for the minutes used) and it isn’t just limited to names, addresses and phone numbers like the typical information line is. You can call and give the name of the theater and the name of a movie and ask what time the show starts or plays. Another common thing is to ask about travel time from one place to another. You can also ask about events occurring in a local area and they can research what time the event will occur and where. The questions aren’t limited to being about those kinds of things either. You can call and ask about history, birth dates, death dates, anything you wonder about is open game to ChaCha. What a great idea! Try it out next time you need an answer.

Today has been a pretty amazing day. My husband was off for the first time in two weeks and so we decided to take the kids on a shopping expedition to the Prime Outlet Malls in Gulfport, Mississippi. Now I love this center. It has some of the best outlet stores ever. They had a Disney, Coach, Nike, Gap, Gymboree, Children’s Place and so many more I was in heaven. Since it was 4th of July weekend they has some incredible sales and we got a lot of great things.

When we got home we decided to lay in bed and watch National Treasure 2 with the kids. I love this series of movies. I am a history buff as it is and I just love mysteries surrounding history. Now I realize they took a lot of creative license when they made it and that the story is not near being a true one. I do think that it was an interesting concept though and the only part I found unbelievable was the city of gold part. I love the idea of finding remnants of history in modern day disguised as other things. I can just imagine people having historically significant items in their possession and not knowing of their significance. I have seen a hundred times on Antiques Roadshow where people have items that are historical without even thinking that were. I amazed every time I read about things being found in someone’s attic.

I remember just recently there was a man who came forward with a photograph of the boy that Anne Frank wrote about in her diary during her time in hiding. This photo had been there for many, many years and no one knew it was important. Now people can actually see what this boy looked like at the time he knew Anne Frank. Amazing really. I can only hope that items continue to turn up and don’t end up lost forever. We have become a society that wants everything organized and in a place and some items may be lost in the purges that homeowners are doing. Even worse is that many families are losing their entire histories to this kind of thing.

I guess I have rambled a bit there but this movie really makes me consider the significance of preserving memories and articles from the past so that they are never lost. Do you guys have anything in your possession that is historically significant or just significant to the history of your family? If you do I would love to hear about it!

Does anyone remember my horror story from last year about my diamond stud earrings? My husband and I went to Disney and I took my diamonds off to take a shower. I placed them in a glass on the shelf above the sink in our room and when I got out and got dressed I forgot them there. When we got back to the room later the glass and my earrings were gone. Well needless to say I have been heartbroken about it since October of last year. I loved those earrings. I decided that it is time to start looking for replacements. My birthday and anniversary are the last week of September and first week of October so I think that would be a fabulous chance to replace them.

So I went looking at sites where we could maybe purchase the earrings and get a good deal but that would be reputable enough to make sure that I would be getting what I was paying for. It is often hard to decide if a on line jewelry store is reputable or not. I have heard so much lately on my Sunshine Rewards shopping rewards site about myjewelrybox.com that I decided that was a great place to start. I was shocked at the amazing merchandise they have on that site.

The very first thing that I noticed was their beautiful blue topaz jewelry. I used to collect blue topaz jewelry because it is one of the few stones besides diamonds that I find absolutely amazing. Especially if you get them in large stones set in rings. I have about 3 different blue topaz rings because I just couldn’t pass them up. Theirs are some of the nicest I have ever seen.

Once I did all of my blue topaz drooling I moved on to the task at hand. Diamond stud earrings that were big enough for me to enjoy and small enough for my husband to afford. Is this quest attainable? I am pleased to announce that it is in fact attainable. Not only do they have a great paid but I can get a bigger pair than what I had for the same price he originally paid for my old earrings. YAY! I seriously thought that I was going to have to wait until my 25th Anniversary to get a new pair but I think that when my husband sees these prices he will be willing to replace them much sooner. Another great service is that they have Free FedEx shipping for purchases over $99. You can shop by product, price or material. It is very easy to navigate and the prices are fabulous. Enjoy!

I know that when summer hits people start to think about way to get their finances in order. It seems that getting the kids back to school reeks havoc on our finances and everyone starts to consider that their must be a better way to make it. Well I have done a lot of research on this and I am always trying out new things. There are several good books out there that can help get you on the right track.

The very first thing that I always suggest is to check with your church and see if they offer a class on finances. Many of them are based on biblical principles of living debt free and are very good at helping to get a budget in order and pay down the debts. Most of the time they are free or cost only the price of the books or reference materials needed to take the class. In my church they do the Crown Financial Class and I have spoken to many couples who have had their lives changed by this class and its principles. It is taught at church communities all over he country so if your church doesn’t offer it you can research to see if one near you does.

What if you don’t want to take a class and just want to read books to do it? There are some really good ones and it really depends on the approach you want to take. Here are a few that I have either read or heard great things about:

Suze Orman- Suze has several different books that are themed for certain groups of people. She has The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom, Young, Fabulous and Broke, and Women & Money. I have read Women & Money and you would be amazed at how many mistakes women make without even realizing they were do so. I also have her FICO Kit which was a real eye opener. I have always kept and eye on my scores but this really helped me to see where the problems were and what I needed to do to fix them. I also found that the reporting agencies are not the most accurate people in the world and so it is my responsibility to make sure they are reporting my information accurately.

Dave Ramsey: Total Money Makeover: A proven plan for financial fitness. I haven’t read this one because I do watch his show often and he justs rubs me the wrong way. I have heard amazing things about his program though and I have had many people tell me that they are now living debt free because of his program. I know that it is based on an envelope system and cash that works well with other people. This would be dangerous for me because I can’t hold on to cash when it is there. I work much better with my debit card and a budget. Like I said, it is an amazing program for some people.

Mary Hunt: Live Your Life for Half Price and Debt-Proof Living. I haven’t read her books yet but I do often read her site and her newsletter. She is more along the lines of cutting back on expenses and finding ways to live life cheaper. I have seen some amazing ideas on her site and I highly recommend for those who just don’t have enough money to cover their needs.

I hope that these books will give you guys some place to start from. There are a million resources on line for helping to reduce debt and to cut back on expenses. Some people really love to coupon shop and have made a job out of saving money and getting their grocery bills as low as they can while still feeding their families well. If you guys have any reference materials you have read that would fall in any of these categories please feel free to let me know about them and I might just read and review them too. Enjoy!

It seems that on line book clubs are becoming all of the rage lately. It makes it much easier and more convenient for the members if the discussions happen on line. Everyone can access the discussions at their own leisure and it doesn’t take time out of their busy schedules. It also helps save money on gas in this time when gas prices are so high. Another great thing about it is that more than one book can be discussed at a time. There can be something for everyone.

How do you go about getting a book club started. Well it is as simple as starting a blog. One great place to start is to find out all about web hosting and who are the best of the best when it comes to hosting. This is an important part of the process because this is basically where all of your on line information is stored. If you have one that is not dependable you could end up with a lot of down time on your site. Webhostinggeeks.com gives readers a great amount of information about what companies to use and what the costs are that are associated with their service.

Once you have decided who to use it is as easy as setting up the site. Most people use a service like Wordpress to do this since they are free and have a vast array of templates to make your site look just like you want it to look. You can get thousands of plug-ins that will help your Wordpress do what you want it to do. From there you just start creating content. I hope you guys get involved in blogging and enjoy it.